GAME REFUGES. 29 



STATEMENT OF DR. WILLIAM T. HORNADAY. 



The Chairman. We will now hear from Dr. William T. Hornaday, 

 of New York. Doctor, won't you please state to the committee some- 

 thing about your position, and the nature and extent of your interest 

 in wild animals. 



Dr. Hornaday. With pleasure, Mr. Chairman. Officially I am the 

 director of the New York Zoological Park, which is under the manage- 

 ment of the New York Zoological Society. One of the declared 

 objects of that society is the protection of our native animals, and 

 during the whole of my 20 years in the service of the society I have 

 been active in that work. For all that work, however, I receive no 

 extra compensation. Even if the Chamberlain-Hayden bill should 

 become a law, and 100 game santuaries were made by it, it would not 

 benefit my personal fortunes by so much as the price of a good cigar. 

 My Vanishing Wild Life book was furnished to all Members of Con- 

 gress in 1912, by the Zoological Society. 



The Chairman. As I understand it, in this partciular matter you 

 are acting for a number of philanthropic persons who desire the per- 

 petuation of our wild life. 



Dr. Hornaday. Precisely. I particularly represent the 70 persons 

 who have created what is known as the permanent wild life protection 

 fund, and that fund is defraying all the expenses of my efforts in 

 behalf of the game sanctuary cause. It was that fund which made 

 possible my trip westward last September and October, in the course 

 of which I visited and lectured in every State west of the Great Plains 

 except Nevada, which I was unable to reach. 



This proposal for game santuaries in national forests is by no means 

 a new idea. No one can say who first thought of it, or who first pro- 

 posed it. I think that the idea is as old as the first national forest. 

 We do know that since 1902 several bills have been introduced in 

 Congress to provide game refuges in national forests, and perhaps it 

 is well to state why all of them have failed. In my opinion they failed 

 to make progress because they were too brief, and too indefinite. 

 They left entirely too much to executive discretion; and more import- 

 ant than all else, they failed to take into account the grazing and 

 agricultural interests, and the interests of the States concerned. 



In framing the bill now before you, the half dozen gentlemen con- 

 cerned in it endeavored to avoid the mistakes of previous bills. 

 They endeavored to be absolutely specific in practically everything, 

 and provide for a clear understanding. They took care of the interests 

 of the sheep and cattle owners, and they did it so well that instead 

 of now opposing us, the sheep and cattle men are our friends. We 

 provided that the governor of each State concerned should have an 

 absolute check upon every sanctuary proposal, by which he can 

 amply protect the interests of his State. 



In planning my own campaign for this cause, it at once became 

 evident to me that this is largely a western proposition, because 

 the bulk of the national forests are west of the Great Plains. It 

 seemed to me that the question of "to be or not to be" is one to be 

 decided by the people of the West; and it was because of that feeling 

 that I finally spent seven weeks in a long and laborious trip westward, 



